sommercamp+workstation=2009 is meant as a practical example of the feasibility of a “laboratory for art and media in Berlin” carrying on the idea of TESLA – medialab. The starting point of the four-month project is the sommercamp from 10 to 16 August – a module to work and generate ideas, with ten open workshops and two days of final presentations on 15/16 August 2009 at the House of World Culture and a kick-off on 14 August 2009 at the radialsystem. The second part of the project is the workstation – intended as project production support – with four three-month project residencies and a curatorial grant that are produced in close collaboration with local and international partners. A discursive weekend will take place from 13 to 15 November 2009 with the invited artists/projects and experts from science and technology at Berlin based general public, in collaboration with DISK/ctm. Please have a look at our website: http://www.sommercampworkstation.de/(continue reading…)

Breakthrough proposes an experimental, interdisciplinary event constructing a new field of research and play. Breakthrough signals the skewed extension and plain rupture with a series of earlier actions [London, Bergen, Berlin] exploring the material basis of technology and expanding on the practice of life coding.

The term breakthrough describes a sudden shift in understanding or technologies, and, finally, a clearing (Lichtung), an entry into
unknown and unmapped territories. An enclosure is breached allowing access to another, totally unforeseen state or space. Communication is thus implied, a new form of exchange, perhaps between two otherwise unconnected domains, between the living and the dead, between many worlds. What does the sheer possibility of a breakthrough imply for communication between the past and the future?(continue reading…)

Piksel participated in this years Transmediale on the topic of Open Hardware.
One of many events bundled under this year’s theme: Deep North.

A theme grounded in the climate changes of our time, and the mystical aspects of a North. Several of the speakers during the opening of the festival were urging artists and the audience alike to get involved in fighting the climate changes of our time through our art and work.
The call is noble, yet it still seems a bit too easy. What kind of actions are we talking about? How can art and digital media fight global warming?

And after the opening the audience was lead to the exhibition space and presented to the exhibited works of this year’s Transmediale artists, and I can’t shake the feeling that I am looking countless pieces involving ice, ice cubes, sounds of ice, ice bergs, polar bears etc, and there is nothing new there. I am instantly transported back in time where when introduced as a Norwegian, was asked if there are polar bears in the streets of Norway.

Deep North is bordering on becoming a cliche. The north should be more than just a place assosiated with ice and global warming melting that same ice, and borders existing under the ice, and even though the speakers at the opening suggested a stronger mystical association with the choice of theme – I am left with a feeling of flatness, what mysteries are you talking about?

A silent visual comment was presented the following day – the classical t-shirt protest – quote generously borrowed from the KLF.

Piksel and Fair Trade Hardware

Piksel’s involvement in this years Transmediale was centered around a discussion panel on open hardware at Haus Der Kulturen Der Welt.
The host, Aymeric Mansoux (GOTO10) , had put together a diverse group of tinkers and thinkers invited to contribute to the somewhat ambigous subject of Fair Trade Hardware:

With 1,5 hour in total to cover introduction of subject, presentation of the work of the participants and discussion it is clear that many important topics are only mentioned briefly. And in this case the subject of the brand of Arduino as an important element in a business case, was a repeating theme throughout the session, which somehow made equally important aspects of Open Hardware fade into the background. Such as the lifecycle of hardware and how individual tinkering with obsolete hardware parts can offer new and innovative reuse, how general knowledge of hardware components and circuitry can make technology less ubiquous and more participative, and lastly, the very important question of how to make hardware open through licensing.

Underneath you find graphical recordring of the session which is left rather uncommented, in the hope you as reader can create your own image of the session taking place. Comments on how to improve this medium for use in this blog is highly welcomed.